In the field of electromechanically adjustable pieces of furniture such as chairs, beds or tables, various drive mechanisms for setting the position of a functional portion of the piece of furniture are employed. A functional portion of a piece of furniture is an individually controllable portion of the piece of furniture, being coupled to an adjoining portion via a joint or transmission, for instance. In order to move the functional portion electromechanically, a functional unit is provided which comprises at least one motor and an actuator.
In order to configure the functional unit by a related control in accordance with the type of the functional unit, for instance of the motor, an identification or detection of the functional unit is required. From European Patent document EP 1646139 A2, it is known to install an additional electrical resistor, which allows the respective functional unit to be identified by the control, in a cable connecting the functional unit to the control device. Having identified the type of the functional unit, the functional unit is configured and triggered depending on its type.
Installing the resistor in the cable, however, results in a separate cable that has to be prepared for each type of the functional unit, causing higher costs, e.g., in stock-keeping. Further, higher efforts are required in order to avoid the various cables being mixed up during assembly.